My girlfriend, Jean (Doyle) Pederson, and I rode the school bus one-half mile to our farm home north of Egan, planning for a "pajama party," which usually involved a lot of giggling and not much sleeping.

Finding out that my parents were not home, we dropped our books and coats and went looking for a snack. About that time, we heard a loud noise in our basement. We looked at each other, hearts pounding hard, and we both cried out, "George Sitts!”

Sitts was a convicted murderer who had escaped from prison weeks earlier. He had killed Erik Johansson, a liquor store clerk, and also killed special agent Tom Matthews. At the time, he was being hunted and later re-captured in a vacant school not all that far from our area.

Down the road on Jackson's farm lived three of the meanest, psychotic dogs that would have torn us into pieces if they had caught us, but, after our screaming and pushing through the screen door (never mind trying to open it), we didn't stop running the whole half mile. The dogs never had a chance to even warm up their legs.
Not ever looking behind us, we were sure that Sitts was following us.

Below the hill was a gas station that also housed two Doberman Pinscher guard dogs. But we kept running until we made it to a friend's house, not even stopping to check for cars on the highway. When we arrived, we were so out of breath we couldn’t even speak.

Later, when we were home again, my dad did some investigating. He claimed that the noise was made from our big cat pushing a box down the coal pile.

George Sitts was 33 years old when he was executed by the State of South Dakota.